Taiwan’s Q1 tax revenues up 5.8 percent in 2015

2015-04-15

Taiwan’s tax revenues totaled NT$353.4 billion (US$11.28 billion) in the first quarter of 2015, up 5.8 percent from 12 months earlier to the highest for the period in 15 years, according to the Ministry of Finance April 13.

A total of 5.4 percent above forecast, the strong showing is accompanied by a gain of 7.9 percent in business taxes to NT$105.4 billion. “The results are largely due to increased private consumption and tax collections from the banking and insurance sectors,” an MOF official said.

Consolidated income taxes also picked up 6.9 percent to a best-ever NT$79 billion, while commodity taxes rose 9 percent to a record NT$42.6 billion. “Higher corporate earning distributions, individual wages and other income sources are the reasons for the healthy numbers,” the official added.

Import duties climbed 9.7 percent to NT$25.8 billion as a result of increased imports of transportation equipment. Business income taxes surged 82.5 percent from a year ago to NT$10.5 billion, but the MOF attributed the latter’s gains largely to deferred collections.

Securities transactions taxes declined 13.4 percent to NT$17.9 billion as a result of lower transaction volume on the local bourses, while land appreciation taxes dropped 6.7 percent to NT$26.1 billion as the local real estate market remains stagnant.

The official expects more positive tax data going forward as conditions at home and abroad continue improving.

“Pretax earnings from Taiwan’s listed companies increased 14.4 percent last year. This bodes well for collections in 2015, especially for consolidated income taxes.”

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=229258&CtNode=413)